We are an award-winning studio of architects, industrial designers and skilled fabricators with a vast and trustworthy network of collaborators. Our studio is dedicated in all processes—design, fabrication, project management, and construction—to realize the vision of our clients, from objets d’art, furniture and installations, to interiors and residential architecture.

Brain 5.3

Rooted in the concept of material memory, Brain 5.3 is the product of extensive experimentation in blown glass. The final form and texture of the piece is the result of a unique process involving the iterative reworking of the primary glass gather.

In this process, molten glass is gathered onto a blowpipe, and blown into a brain-shaped plaster mold. This initial blow yields a perfectly transparent replica of the inner walls of the mould - a pure casting that is easily deciphered, and texturally simple in nature.

As this freshly blown glass begins to transition from a plastic to solid state, it is thrust back into a furnace and carefully rotated until it becomes pliable. In the furnace, the hollow glass brain collapses in on itself forming a series of inner folds as it returns from brain to 'blob'. This newly shaped, and nearly molten volume of glass is then re-blown into the plaster mold.

Multiple cycles of the described process yield a glass brain that is consistent in its overall shape, but increasingly complex in its textural appearance. The final piece is the direct and unique result of this cyclical manufacturing process, which traces the history of its formation.

A very special thank you to Harbourfront Centre, and resident glass artists Kristian Spreen and Silvia Taylor for their help. As part of The Brain Project, a city-wide art project to raise awareness around issues of brain health.